No bones

The team spent five days checking for signs of the burial sites and the area of cliffs where the drama unfolded more than a century before, to help decide if any grave sites need protection.

"There's collapsing cliff, it's a very high energy zone for waves crashing into the island and so there's a very good chance many of those graves have already been destroyed by natural forces," Mr Khan said.

A potential grave was identified, but a careful examination found no traces of bones.

A magnetometer on board a boat also surveyed the waters around Maupertius Bay in search of the wreck itself.

"The Loch Sloy was a 1,200-tonne iron ship and there would be even today large portions today of that iron on the sea floor," Mr Khan explained.

"It was the loss of that much life on this coast that eventually convinced enough people in Adelaide to take the measures required to set up the Cape du Couedic lighthouse and the Neptune light," Mr Khan said.